I Know It When I See It

The Install: Life & Design with Paloma and Caroline

In this episode of 'The Install: Life & Design with Paloma and Caroline,' the hosts reflect on personal moments that define their weeks—ranging

Key takeaways

• Small, shared moments—like playing Mahjong or swimming with family—are deeply meaningful and create lasting memories.

Main topics

• Family bonding through shared activities
• Morning routines and emotional well-being

Notable quotes

"It felt so good to make this little space for family and to use a part of our house, you know, that is when we're not entertaining."

Conclusion

This episode underscores how intentional rituals and meaningful connections—whet

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) Hi, and welcome to The Install. We're Paloma Contreras and Caroline Jadier, and this is where we talk about design, business, and the real life behind creative work. What's inspiring us, what's challenging us, and everything in between. Speaker 1 (0:17) Hey, Caroline. We're like, who's going first? Speaker 2 (0:21) Hey, Paloma. How are you? I'm great. Speaker 1 (0:24) How are you doing? Speaker 2 (0:25) Doing good. Doing good. Glad to be here. Glad Speaker 1 (0:27) to see you at a pretty pace. Me too. It's always a delight to see you. Speaker 2 (0:31) How has your week been? It's been great. Let me tell you, my high this weekend had such a great Saturday. It was just, I mean, perfect. Lou is home. She's my girl. She's 16. She loves to do some pool sitting just like her mama. So I love having a buddy going with me. She wants to hop in the pool, jump in just like I do. Speaker 1 (0:58) And Speaker 2 (0:59) so we did that in the morning, got a little bit of sun. And then we came home, you know, I did the post on Substack on getting my Mahjong set because she was like, why do we not have? a strong set and why do we never play it like so angry what is our problem and i didn't realize Speaker 1 (1:19) that teenagers were playing too i thought this was like yeah you know like all of her friends Speaker 2 (1:26) and their moms play and they're playing all the time they have a set we don't even have a set anyway so i got a set and steven does not like to be left out. You know, on Friday night, she came in because I had set the set out and everything. She was like, let's play Mahjong. And we're like, oh my God, let's play Mahjong. When you have a teenager, you will understand this. that they want to do something with you. You're like, absolutely. Speaker 1 (1:53) Just say the word. Like Speaker 2 (1:56) we're scrambling, like trying to get to the table before she changes her mind. And so much fun. It's also funny because Stephen is very smart. He's used to probably being one of the smartest people in the room. He does not like to be back on his heels. Never seen the board, like the mat before. Speaker 2 (2:18) the tiles, doesn't know the rules. And it is so complicated. I can't tell you how complicated it was. I got so tickled because he was getting so angry with us. And Lou and I barely know how to play. So we weren't a lot of help, but not just that. So we did that on Friday night, which was enough to make it a great weekend. But then the next day, I was like, you want to go to the pool with me? And she was like, yeah, let's go. I'm like, sweet. So we went to the pool. came back and was like, let's play Mahjong, which we started playing. And it was like, we really need a fourth. Call your friend Jane. So Lou's friend Jane came over. We ordered some sandwiches. Jane picked them up on her way. It was just such a great weekend. That's Speaker 1 (3:03) so nice. Speaker 2 (3:04) I know. It was so, it was just like, gosh, if every weekend could be as great. I really loved it. Speaker 1 (3:11) I love it. That just goes to show, you know, the small moments are really the big moments. Oh, Speaker 2 (3:16) yeah. Speaker 1 (3:16) The stuff that you remember and that just is so special. For Speaker 2 (3:19) sure. And I was just so proud of myself as I was looking around. I was like, you know, not Speaker 1 (3:24) just family, but like I felt proud of my Speaker 2 (3:29) Mahjong finds and I love my mat from Lo & Co and our little brass die and all the... just little elements I thought were really pretty. They were a joy to use. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, it felt so good to make this little space for family and to use a part of our house, you know, that is when we're not entertaining. I mean, Stephen and I'll sit in there. through the winter months, turn the logs on and like read in there. Like on Saturday mornings or early morning, he might take a call or whatever, but just really get some good use Speaker 1 (4:07) out of that. So it felt Speaker 2 (4:09) really good. Speaker 1 (4:10) Have you had a bad, like a low this week? This Speaker 2 (4:14) morning, in fact, I know I have other ones. I always say to myself, oh. this is my low. I'm going to remember it. I think I'll write it down. Then I think, no, I'll surely remember this because it's so annoying. And then I don't remember it at all. Speaker 1 (4:29) But Speaker 2 (4:29) so this, I have a morning routine and it is very important to me. I have like a slow roll into my morning and I like to, regardless of where I am, do the exact same thing every morning. And I do that through Starbucks and people can hate on Starbucks and that's all fine and good. But The good thing about that brand is its consistency, right? Speaker 1 (4:52) So Speaker 2 (4:53) you can be in London and have your same coffee. It's coffee, yeah. Yes, yeah. You can have your same drink. And I have a shot of espresso, my iced green tea, and my hot green tea every single morning. So I place my order this morning and I pull up to Starbucks and it is closed and the employees are sitting outside. So normally it'll say like, sorry, can't take your mobile order because we're closed. But the manager had not shown up and they were like, he should be here any minute. And it was like, oh my gosh, I had to get to the gym. I had to do my whole gym workout without my... Morning stuff. And it was like, this is going to be a challenge. Like, I'm going to have to lift these heavy weights in the gym. And it just felt like everything was more intense. Like, I was like, oh, my hands Speaker 1 (5:47) are hurting. I Speaker 2 (5:48) was such a whiny baby Speaker 1 (5:50) about everything. Like, I don't know if it's because I haven't had my caffeine Speaker 2 (5:54) or what. But I felt like such a loser, such a whiny baby. And, you know, it ended up being a pretty good day. But I was. concerned that this whole day was going to be a waste. Speaker 1 (6:08) Not getting to start my day like I wanted to. Speaker 2 (6:10) Did you make a Speaker 1 (6:11) beeline for it after your workout straight back to Starbucks? I Speaker 2 (6:15) did. And they had all the stickers, I guess, when they got in. All those little stickers had just come piling out of the machine. And they had them all up and down the counter. So when you came in, if you had ordered it, they would take your sticker and make your drink. Speaker 1 (6:30) What a mess. I mean, hopefully the manager wasn't having like a horrible situation or something where he just... I just felt bad Speaker 2 (6:37) for all of them. Speaker 1 (6:38) They Speaker 2 (6:38) were having a much worse day than I'm going to, you Speaker 1 (6:40) know, it was just a lot of chaos. It's hard to start your Speaker 2 (6:43) day Speaker 1 (6:44) with chaos like that. And then just, yeah, work back from that. That's hard. I feel like that sets the tone for the whole day. Speaker 2 (6:50) How about you? My good Speaker 1 (6:52) week is school started yesterday. So it's the first, Margo's first day of kindergarten, which was really exciting. Speaker 1 (7:01) She's so pretty and so stinking cute. Thank you. Thank you so much. She's just, she's a delight. She's my little angel. I tell her every day she's my dream. She started kindergarten. I was really sad at the end of pre-K-4 because I loved her teachers. I mean, they are once-in-a-lifetime teachers. And I was like, we're just not going to get that lucky again. And her new teacher seems, her teacher seemed lovely and sweet, and I'm sure it's going to be a great year. I wasn't like sad. I anticipated that I would be a little emotional with her starting kindergarten, but so far so good. I feel like maybe it'll sneak up on me at some point, but I've just been trying to be excited for her because she has been saying that she was feeling a little bit shy to meet her teacher and she was shy to go to a new class and shy to meet new friends. Speaker 1 (7:50) When she came home yesterday, and I didn't get a lot of detail, but it was, she said, best day ever. And I asked her why. And basically because she saw her pre-K-4 teacher from last year. She saw her best friends on the playground who are not in her class. But I think in a few days, you know, she'll ease in. She'll start to, you know, get more warmed up and acclimated to her new environment and her new classmates and all that. And she knows a lot of them. Is Speaker 2 (8:17) her kindergarten in with like... The older kids or is it 4K and kindergarten separate? Speaker 1 (8:23) No, it's early childhood and then they go to lower school and the lower school is on, like it starts on the next level. Our school is very vertical. So the little ones are on the first floor. So she's with pre-K-3, pre-K-4 and kindergarten. Okay. But she, like they work their way back into the hallway. So they start in the front and then they go all the way to the back and she's all the way in the back now. But she walks past her former teachers on the way from the last two years. Speaker 2 (8:47) There's nothing better, I think, for little kids than to have that continuity that like I'm involving, but these people are still here. These people that love me, see me, and being able to give them a Speaker 1 (9:00) hug just makes such a huge difference for their little souls. Well, I saw it in her because she was like, am I going to see Ms. Rankin? That was her teacher last year. And I was like, yeah, we're going to walk past. And I mean, I assume she's going to be busy with her new kids. children, her new students walking in, but it just worked out that as we were walking by, she had just finished welcoming somebody and she was standing at her door and gave Margo a big hug. And I could just see like her face change. She was so happy. And she was like, okay, now I'm ready to take on the day. Speaker 2 (9:30) Oh yeah. You care. They carry that with them. They think, oh yeah, this is, I'm good at this. Like, cause somebody really loves me, you know, so Speaker 1 (9:38) I'll Speaker 2 (9:39) be fine. Speaker 1 (9:40) Right. I just love our school. I'm happy to have the routine back. Summer, as we talked about on previous episodes, is hard for working parents with children in school. So I'm very happy to have longer days in the office again. I'm getting here at 830. I leave at four to pick her up. So it's a full day. That's really nice. And I just, I love our community. I love our school so much. I love everybody there. It makes me happy. You know, one of her friends' little sisters saw me. As I was walking out of the building today and she goes, Margo C's mom. Hi, Margo C's mom. Because her sister is Margo M. And she's starting for the first time. She's three and she's like the sweetest little girl. But that just tickled me and it made my day. They make my day. I love those children. That's my high. And then my low is a couple of days ago, I found out. My dear, dear friend, I mean, I've known her since the seventh grade. We were best friends through middle school and high school and stayed in touch. I mean, I would say well into like, we were still in touch into our mid-20s, but then she had children in her 20s. And then, of course, I had Margo much later. So our kids are, you know, her kids are in high school. My child is just starting kindergarten. We're just on different. different areas of life. And they live in Austin, so she's further away. But we, even though we don't keep up in the day-to-day and our lives are very different now, she's like a sister. And, you know, if something happened for either of us, I know the other would be there. And she let me know she has been diagnosed with cancer. So she's a fighter. She's a tough cookie. I know that she is going to do her best to get through this. So I'm sending her lots of love. thinking about her and her family. But, you know, it's tough news to get. And you hate to see that happen to anybody that you know Speaker 2 (11:34) and love. I'm Speaker 1 (11:34) so sorry. Thank you. I Speaker 2 (11:37) just keep waiting. Speaker 2 (11:40) You know, right now it's a battle against time, too, because they're making such advances. It's almost like if